Science STARS Selected as a Finalist for the 2012 Rochester Teen Film Festival

The 2012 Rochester Teen Film Festival will put the spotlight on East High School girls participating in the Warner School’s Science STARS afterschool program this past year. The girls’ science documentary film, “Txtg can b Trgc,” has been selected as one of nine finalist films to be screened at the festival at The Little Theatre on Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 5:30 p.m.

Science STARS (Students Tackling Authentic and Relevant Science), a science inquiry afterschool club for seventh- through twelfth-grade girls at East High School that is led by graduate students studying science education, met every Thursday this school year. The first half of the year students developed and conducted scientific investigations around the topic of urban ecology (science in our city) that led to noticeable, positive change. As an extension of this work, a subset of the girls then focused on honing their literacy skills along with science practices during the second half of the school year as they worked alongside professional filmmakers and University of Rochester undergraduate science majors to create science documentaries.

The basic premise of the featured documentary film is that texting while driving is more dangerous—and even fatal if someone gets hit. Through their scientific investigation, the girls looked more closely at the human brain to explain why.

The following East High teen filmmakers will be at the festival to present their film: Nicole Bennett, 13; Alicia Stewart, 13; Alysha Shinzing, 15. Judges will then decide who receives “Best of the Fest” awards. A free reception will also follow the screening at The Little Theatre Café.

The Teen Film Festival, which received 38 entries, is a collaboration among Nazareth College and the High Falls Film Festival. Students from urban, suburban, and rural schools around the Rochester area compete to have their films shown on the big screen at The Little Theatre in downtown Rochester. Warner graduate Brian Bailey ’09 (PhD), assistant professor of adolescence education at Nazareth College, is co-founder and co-director of the Rochester Teen Film Festival and Summer Camp, both of which grew out of his research on Youth Digital Media Production and Literacy.